KITCHENER – As a support worker in Guelph, Helen Garten helps developmentally challenged adults live independently in their own homes.

She’s also the mother of a 22-year-old daughter who is disabled and who has been waiting seven years to move into a group home.

On Monday, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Garten joined 22 other support workers from all across Ontario and all members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, to protest provincial cuts to services and supports for adults with developmental disabilities.

They protested in front of the King Street East office of Kitchener Centre MPP John Milloy, who is also Ontario Minister of Community and Social Services.

“I am pleading with the government of Ontario to stop ignoring the needs of people with disabilities,” Garten said.

She said her daughter, Brittany, is blind and lives at home.

“She is very eager to move out. She wants to spread her wings and do what other young adults do,” Garten said.

Milloy was out of town Monday on government business, but the group met with Milloy’s communications assistant Kelly Milne.

“Why we are here is, we see the situation becoming more and more critical,” Sarah Declerck, social services co-ordinator for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, told Milne.

Declerck said recently two Sarnia families surrendered care of their adult children with developmental disabilities to a local agency because they couldn’t care for them anymore and were on a waiting list for residential services.

She said currently there are 23,000 people with a developmental disability waiting for support services in Ontario. The waiting lists are the results of lack of provincial funding, cuts in staffing hours and cancelled community-based programs.

Declerck said the government in 2007 injected $272 million into the system over four years, but the promised funding for 2009 and 2010 were redirected. A large part of the money covered increased wages for support workers who hadn’t received a raise for years, she said. Support workers earn about $22 an hour.

Milloy said additional provincial dollars into the system have not been sufficient as people with developmental challenges are living longer.

“I would be the first to admit there’s still incredible need out there,” Milloy said in a telephone interview from Toronto.

“We have been constantly investing resources into the system to try and meet that demand. It’s still there. There is still a waiting list and we’re managing it through.”